I Tried To Quit Sugar, But Failed Without Realizing Why

You may think you’ve had a love affair with sugar, but you haven’t. I have. And it was intense.

At 4 p.m. sharp every workday, I would open my desk drawer for “cocktail hour,” aka the time when I indulged in as many cookies, candies and s’mores Goldfish as acceptable in a professional environment. At 7 p.m., it was time for a margarita with dinner. At midnight, it was fresh-baked cookies in bed. Seven in the morning meant a vanilla latte. (Hold the latte, extra vanilla.)

In short, I was in love with sugar. So last spring, I made a resolution to eat better, like so many people do at the start of a new year. Specifically, I decided to “give up sugar” for Lent, the 46-day period leading up to Easter. The plan was simple: Stop eating refined sugar, and feel like a healthy, bionic champion.

Forty-six days later, I was NOT a bionic champion. But I did learn a lot about sugar, and what “giving up sugar” should actually look and feel like.

Firstly, I should note that I was “giving up sugar” all wrong.

I told myself I would stop eating refined sugar, which I loosely defined as corn syrup and the grainy, white stuff we add to cookies and cakes. I decided that any food or drink which listed “corn syrup” or “sugar” as an ingredient was off-limits. More “natural” sweeteners, however, like honey and maple syrup, were still allowed. I knew most ketchup contained a crazy amount of corn syrup, but I decided I could eat as much as I wanted. Just for fun.

Suzy Strutner

Clearly, we had a problem.

My plan was seriously flawed.

Clearly my plan was problematic for a number of reasons, but its main flaw was that it allowed me to eat as much honey and maple syrup as I wanted, because I thought they were “freebies” in the nutrition world. Turns out they’re not. There are two general categories of sugar:

There are strict guidelines for how much of this added sugar you should consume. The U.S. Food And Drug Administration recommends no more than 50 grams of added sugar per day. The type doesn’t matter: It can come from adding honey to your oatmeal or dumping corn syrup into your muffin mix. Because as it turns out,

So, what should I have done to “give up sugar?”

It isn’t necessary to limit natural sugars like the ones in milk and fruit, Dr. William Dietz, an obesity prevention expert at George Washington University, told HuffPost. But he said that in order to truly “give up” the sugar that is harmful to my body, I should have stopped eating all added sugars, including the ones I thought were “healthy” like honey and maple syrup. Of course, ketchup definitely shouldn’t have been allowed.

So I “gave up sugar” all wrong. But even with my small sugar restriction, I did notice some changes in how I felt and acted. Namely,

While I was “giving up sugar,” I couldn’t stop thinking about cookies.

The first few days “without sugar” felt great, like I was going through a detox my body desperately needed. Then, the cravings reared their sugary heads. I was at a friend’s birthday party, talking to my roommate, when suddenly all I could think about, see or smell were the cookies on the table behind her. It was like I had a laser focus on that sugar source, and I couldn’t think of anything else. Was this evidence of the “sugar addiction” I had read so much about?

Probably not, says Dr. Dietz.

In order to even have a chance of experiencing sugar withdrawals, he says, I would’ve had to do something like a ketogenic diet, which cuts out the natural sugar from fruit along with refined sugars and refined carbohydrates (which the body eventually reduces into sugar). Since I was eating fruit, carbs and all sorts of sneaky added sugars, it’s unlikely my crazy cookie craving was a result of withdrawal.

I also craved fatty, fried foods more.

Since I couldn’t look forward to my dessert kick at the end of the day, I began looking forward to and eating fried chicken and French fries more. Much more. Again, Dr. Dietz said there’s no physiological basis for this. But still, my desire for fried goodies took months to subside, even after I started eating more sugar again.

But overall, I felt more like a strong, powerful human.

Before I “gave up sugar,” it felt like I simply had to try every cookie, candy and crazy dessert that crossed my desk. (And at this job, that happens a lot.) I’d feel a tinge of guilt every time I popped another Oreo in my mouth, knowing it wasn’t the healthiest choice. But the novelty of a new flavor made me eat it anyway.

But after I “gave up sugar,” I had an excuse to say no to that temptation, and it felt great. I got a morale boost from realizing I could successfully “give up sugar” if I set my mind to it. Research shows that “small wins,” like saying no to a cookie or making your bed in the morning, can give you the motivation to make even bigger life changes.